Michael Moore and "Fahrenheit 911" received a 20
minute standing ovation in Cannes yesterday. Like Gary
Unger's best-selling "House of Bush, House of Saud,"
an explosive book now banned in the UK, Michael
Moore's new feature film explores the Bush-Bin
Laden-Saud family business relationships among other
explosive story lines. But what will the "US
mainstream news media" do with this story? Will they
give it the overexposure they gave to Mel Gibson's
"Passion"? Nah.
It's the Media, Stupid.
Charlotte Higgins, Guardian: Michael Moore's
Fahrenheit 9/11 is without doubt the most flaming-hot
ticket at the Cannes film festival. And with good
reason: Moore hopes that it will bring down the US
government...There has already been a complicated saga
over the distribution of the film. At the start of the
month it became clear that Disney, the parent company
of Miramax - which made Fahrenheit 9/11 - was refusing
to distribute it in the US...Moore is clearly furious
with the company. "I have a lot to say about Disney. It is very dangerous to give someone like me a peek behind the curtain. I will tell all as soon as the [distribution] negotiations have ended," he said on Saturday.
Break the Bush Cabal Stranglehold on the "US
Mainstream News Media," Show Up for Democracy in 2004:
Defeat Bush (again!)
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0517-10.htm
Published on Monday, May 17, 2004 by the Guardian/UK
Fahrenheit 9/11 Could Light Fire Under Bush
by Charlotte Higgins
Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 is without doubt the
most flaming-hot ticket at the Cannes film festival.
And with good reason: Moore hopes that it will bring
down the US government.
The American film-maker has hitherto kept a tight lid
on the contents of the documentary, saying only that
it includes evidence of alleged links between the Bush
and Bin Laden families. However, in two appearances in
Cannes at the weekend before its premiere today, he
revealed that the movie contains shocking footage from
Iraq.
Yesterday he said: "When you see the movie you will
see things you have never seen before, you will learn
things you have never known before. Half the movie is
about Iraq - we were able to get film crews embedded
with American troops without them knowing that it was
Michael Moore. They are totally fucked."
On Saturday he said: "The film is only partly to do
with the Bin Ladens and Bush. I was able to send three
different freelance film crews to Iraq. Soldiers had
written to me to express their disillusionment with
the war. It's a case of our own troops not being in
support of their commander-in-chief."
He said that at the few low-key preview screenings
that have already taken place in the midwest "the
reactions were overwhelming. People who were on the
fence - undecided voters - suddenly weren't on the
fence any more."
Moore was unequivocal about his desire to do
everything in his power to help oust President George
Bush in this November's elections.
"We thought, 'We cannot leave this to the Democrats
this time to fuck it up and lose.'" He wants, he said,
to "inspire people to get up and vote in November."
There has already been a complicated saga over the
distribution of the film. At the start of the month it
became clear that Disney, the parent company of
Miramax - which made Fahrenheit 9/11 - was refusing to
distribute it in the US.
The film currently has distribution, according to
Moore, in every other country except Taiwan.
After a baffling series of rumors and counter-rumors
last week, it was revealed that Disney was allowing
Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who run Miramax, to buy back
their interest in the film so they could seek an
alternative distributor. After a fortnight, none has
yet been found.
The reasons for Disney's refusal, Moore claimed, were
purely political, aimed at delaying the film's release
and thus preventing Americans from seeing the
explosive material it contains before the election.
"The past year we knew that Michael Eisner [CEO of
Disney] was not happy about Miramax making the film
but they kept on sending the money every month," Moore
said on Saturday. "At the end of April they sent an
executive to look at the film. They had a board
meeting and five days later they decided not to
distribute it, because of its political content."
Yesterday he said: "That's the reason for the
blocking: so that Americans don't see it before the
election."
He added: "I won't let that happen, and neither will
Harvey [Weinstein]. People will see this film, by hook
or by crook. I will get this out if it means breaking
the law or committing an act of civil disobedience."
Eisner has previously denied that there was anything
sinister about Disney's decision to block
distribution. "We're such a nonpartisan company," he
said. "[People] do not look for us to take sides."
The contract between Disney and Miramax states that
Disney can refuse to distribute a film in certain
cases, for instance if it has an NC-17 rating - the US
equivalent of an 18 certificate. Under such
circumstances Miramax has in the past found
alternative distribution - for Dogma, a 1999 satire on
the Catholic church, and Larry Clark's Kids,
eventually released in 1995, which shocked many with
its frank depiction of sex among teenagers.
Moore is clearly furious with the company. "I have a
lot to say about Disney. It is very dangerous to give
someone like me a peek behind the curtain. I will tell
all as soon as the [distribution] negotiations have
ended," he said on Saturday.
The film-maker is also unhappy with the way the
controversy has been handled in the media.
"The press have said, 'Isn't it great for the movie?'
But the last two times this happened - with Dogma and
Kids - you only have to look at the box office to see
that the controversy didn't help. No film-maker wants
this to happen.
"I don't like the message this sends, which is, 'Don't
even think of making a movie like [Fahrenheit 9/11] -
it won't get distributed.' This is a chilling effect
it will have. Five men and one woman [the Disney
board] make a decision about what Americans can see.
This is not a sign of an open and healthy society."
Moore's position has not met with universal sympathy.
A piece in the Los Angeles Times last week accused his
last film, Bowling for Columbine, of being "a torrent
of partial truths, pointed omissions and deliberate
misimpressions" and called him a "virtuoso of
fictions".
But Moore has no plans to shut up shop just yet. He is
planning films "on the Israelis and Palestinians, and
the oil industry and lack of oil we are going to be
faced with".
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
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